


And Silence Was Their Language

by Seeking7



Series: Gift Fics 💖 [1]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Amnesia, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gift Fic, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Pre-Linked Universe, Wild (Linked Universe) Angst, Wild (Linked Universe)-centric, Wolfie (Linked Universe)-centric, happy birthday to the lego man!! :D, it is now ig, that's not a tag BAHAHAHA, wolfie is a lovable jerk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26294374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seeking7/pseuds/Seeking7
Summary: Like many things, Link couldn't remember when the wolf first started following him.One day, Link had been sure he met the beast the night he reclaimed Vah Medoh. Another, he would have sworn to any passerby that the wolf had met him under the storm clouds of Thundra Plateau. Not even a full week had passed since he dined with Impa and swore on his honor that he didn’t have any memories of the wolf before his arrival in Kakariko Village.+++++++AKA: Wild and Wolfie hurt/comfort and fluff! And some angst, of course. :DHeavily based on Caleb's incredible Wolfie and Wild-centric animation, "Reunion."
Relationships: Link & Wolf Link, Twilight & Wild (Linked Universe)
Series: Gift Fics 💖 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1911241
Comments: 34
Kudos: 347





	And Silence Was Their Language

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_DOHnut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_DOHnut/gifts).



> A birthday gift for TheDOHnut | Caleb over on the LU Discord! Thank you for all the lego animation goodness! The fandom appreciates it more than you can imagine.

Like many things, Link couldn’t remember when the wolf had started following him. 

The great beast flickered constantly at the edge of his vision and recollection, an echo, a song, a suggestion embroidered in the shattered glass of his mind. He teetered on the edge of omniscience, his presence staining the edges of Link’s powdery memories black and cyan, his primal wisdom flowing through the blood of the reawakened hero. 

One day, Link had been sure he met the beast the night he reclaimed Vah Medoh. Another, he would have sworn to any passerby that the wolf had met him under the storm clouds of Thundra Plateau. Not even a full week had passed since he dined with Impa and swore on his honor that he didn’t have any memories of the wolf before his arrival in Kakariko Village.

Today, he was sure that the wolf had been with him the moment he woke from the Shrine of Resurrection. He had no memory to accompany his conviction, no recollection of pink paws pattering behind him or the heavy swish of bristly fur, no facts, no scars, nothing.

But he knew. 

Link prodded the campfire and watched the sluggish flames sputter back to life. They burned a dim orange, painting the cave floor the same stubborn color as Olkin’s prized pumpkins yet bringing little warmth with them. Hard, underripe apples hissed over the fire. Sunrise seeped over blue mountains, trickling down into ravines frosted with promise of another hard day, and the wolf blinked lazily as he woke up. 

“Good morning, friend,” Link whispered, extending a hand to the silent beast sitting next to him. The wolf nudged his head forward and allowed the lonely hero’s palm to rest on his nose. Birds twittered outside the cave. The moment passed, and the wolf withdrew from Link’s touch and jerked his nose towards the campfire.

“Oh!” Link said, prying the burning apples out of the fire. He tried not to let his disappointment show when the fleshy fruit skin sloughed off under his fingers. Overcooked. Not by much, but still. And the second time this week, no less. What was getting into him? The lynel he had encountered a few days ago had certainly nicked him up, but he was rested and healed. He didn’t get hit on the head, did he? Not like that would change his situation much, but still. Oh, Hylia, when would he ever stop making all these stupid, stupid, stupid mistakes? If he can’t even cook apples properly, it makes sense why-- 

Link jolted in surprise when the wolf suddenly rested his head in his lap. The beast’s soft croons echoed through the cave, a dusky, baritone rumble that brought the thudding of Link’s heart down to a hum. Link kneaded his fingers through the fur on the wolf’s forehead, his mind silent, waiting for the whispering in his head to stop. He blinked quickly as the smell of teal ghosts and slippery, silky memories he wanted nothing more than to hold in his hands and bundle around his heart filled his nose. His eyes burned, and his cheeks grew wet, and the wolf next to him nuzzled the tears away.

The apple in his hand had grown cold before he remembered it was there. He nibbled at the hard, sticky fruit with half-closed eyes, begging himself to focus on the golden sky above him. The wolf poked at his apple with the same amount of casual disinterest but still swatted away the ants that demonstrated an unorthodox interest in his breakfast. Link made a chortling noise, and the wolf looked at him as if to say that it was the principal that mattered, not the action itself. The hero scratched behind the wolf’s ears as the din in his mind grew quite. A softness bubbled in his heart as the wonder of sunrise illuminated the kingdom of Hyrule. 

“It’s such a beautiful morning, isn’t it?” Link said, his voice barely audible over the ambience of dawn. 

The wolf did nothing and said nothing, yet the cerulean intelligence in his eyes spoke in the affirmative. 

++++++++++

Link loved the Gerudo Desert. 

There was something in the air that set it apart from every other place in Hyrule, something sensual and brazen and dripping with mystery. It had no origin in the women, as the stuttering, smitten men milling about Kara Kara Bazaar attested, but in the sand itself. The way the fine, golden grains sifted through his fingers and drifted on the stifling breeze astounded him, and the life that simmed just underneath the film of dust filled him with awe (and adrenaline, in the frequent case that said life was of the malice-infected sort). 

However, Link spent less and less time there, and not only because months had passed since he had reclaimed Vah Naboris for the Gerudo. Although the strings of fate and obligation frequently led him back to the desert, it was clear to any Hylian, Gerudo, or sand-dwelling Lizalfos that the hero was anxious to leave. Not in the stuffy, haughty way of Hylian merchants or the sweaty, frazzled way of sun-stroked Ritos, but with the soft, crackling words of a man obligated to keep his visit short. 

Silk rustled around him as Link sprinted across the desert. The wolf panted heavily at his side, fur dusted with sand and eyes scrunched against the midday heat. Link placed his hands on his hips and tried not to let his worry show. If only chilly elixirs worked for wolves as well...his eyes flickered back to the wolf and the cloudy saliva dripping from a lolling, pink tongue. A familiar urgency burned through him. Perhaps he should have put off this visit until he found a proper place for the wolf to stay.

Steaming sheets of sun shot down from the sky and baked the sand beneath their feet. Link cringed in sympathy as the wolf carried on, face stoic but paws reflexively shrinking from the heat. A shadow loomed in the distance, and the hero’s face brightened.

“Come here,” he whispered. His voice was swallowed by a gust of blistering wind, but the wolf understood him nonetheless. Sand rubbed against their ankles as the hero and the wolf made their way to the shade of the limestone temple ruins. As they weaved their way through the dust-caked, yellow pillars, Link was suddenly grateful that they’d passed through earlier and killed the monsters milling about. That would guarantee them a few minutes of shade and safety, at least until the sun set. 

Link took a seat at the base of a pillar and motioned for the wolf to do the same. They huddled together, pressing themselves into the meanger shadow the pillar provided, and waited for the afternoon to fade away. 

“I’m sorry,” Link blurted. His voice cracked. He refused to meet the wolf’s eyes. “I should have waited. For nightfall. I’m sorry.” 

The wolf said nothing. Link looked away and picked idly at the starburst of scars on his face. 

“Do you remember the first day we met?” he asked. His throat was already raw from talking, but the still, stifling air forced out the few drops of conversationality he had in him. “It was the first time I visited Zora’s Domain. And you were sitting at the foot of the Great Zora Bridge. Almost like you were waiting for me, or something.” 

The wolf bowed his head and remained silent. 

“Don’t give me that look. I’m sure of it this time. I met you just before I entered Zora’s Domain proper for the first time. Or the first time I can remember, at least.” 

The wolf rested his hands on his paws and closed his eyes. 

“Are you trying to say that I’m wrong?” 

If wolves could snicker, Link would bet every rupee that’s what his companion would be doing. 

“Very well then,” the hero continued, “how about _you_ tell me when we first met?” 

The wolf nodded his head, and Link inclined his ear. 

**_“WOOF!”_ **

Link jolted in surprise and let out a girlish squeak.

“Ack! Hey!!” he said, playfully punching the wolf in the shoulder. 

The wolf howled with smoky, canine laughter, resting his jaw on the hero’s shoulder as the latter’s pout faded. A stale, dusty breeze weaved its way through the ruins and carried with it the smell of forgotten mistakes. Link wrapped his arms around his companion and held him tight, waiting for the afternoon to slip away. 

++++++++++

Link had a long list of things that were strange about Malice, but the fact that it was always freezing cold to the touch was at the top. 

Maybe that’s why Hyrule Field felt colder than the summit of Hebra Peak. 

The hero made his way to the castle with a blank face, curling and uncurling his fingers around the Master Sword’s hilt. It bounced in his grasp, the base to the melody of his thudding of his heart. Thick, red beams of light crisscrossed the sky and converged at the castle like the fingertips of gods. The sound of ancient machinery returning to their calling after a hundred years echoed through the earth, and the smell of destiny was nauseating. 

The two crested a small hill, and Hyrule Castle came into view. 

If Link had been more predisposed to speech, this would have been the proper time for a monologue or other verbal reflection on his journey so far. Perhaps he would have sat down under a tree and recounted his adventure to the wolf, or trail his fingers over the fresh, pink scars lacing his arms, or said something deep and profound about Calamity Ganon’s time finally being up. 

But Link had as many words as he had memories, so he continued on silently. 

Until the wolf stopped following him. 

The hero halted and turned around, waiting for his companion to catch up and join him. Only when the beast sat down and met Link’s gaze with one just as sorrowful as his did the hero understand. 

“Oh.” 

Silence was their language, and that night, they sang a soundless dirge for the memories they made together. Link hugged the wolf tight, refusing to let himself cry when his best and only friend disappeared in a cloud of twilight. 

He was alone again. 

Midnight stars sparkled overhead. The hero continued on, and the moon watched as his face grew wet with tears and his sorrow hardened into courage. 

++++++++++

Dusk had seeped over the horizon, and the group’s makeshift camp was almost as heavy with the smell of soup as it was with exhaustion. Sky, Time, Four, and Warriors had already fallen asleep, too tired to wait until dinner was finished, and Wind and Hyrule’s half-lidded expressions suggested that they were close on the dreamer’s heels. Legend yawned from his seat on his bedroll, idly picked at the grass and sprinkling it on the captain’s sleeping head. He added twigs, leaves, and an assortment of small bugs as Wild’s soup bubbled over the campfire.

“--and that’s when I hit him! Pew pew pew, bam, right in the eye! And how that hinox _howled!_ Oh, there’s all this talk about black hinoxes being the most dangerous of their kind -- bah, lies! I took that thing down before it could blink twice. You should have been there, Rancher, the monster’s theatrics made everything downright hilarious!!” 

Twilight’s smile softened as the fire crackled. He continued mending the loose sole of Wild’s boots as the champion blabbered on about the nuances of hinox-fighting and as Legend placed a small mouse in the sleeping captain’s hair. The smell of burning fat grew thick. Twilight nudged Wild’s shoulder and gestured to the soup. 

“Oh!” The champion pulled the soup off the fire and whisked it frantically, sighing with relief when no black curds floated to the top. “Heh, that was a close one. It looks fine, though. Can’t believe that I almost let it burn!” 

“You were just focused on something else, that’s all,” Twilight said, his soft accent creeping in and rounding out his consonants. 

“Yeah, but--”

Twilight placed a hand on Wild’s knee and waited until the champion turned to him. The rancher searched for words, and, finding none, let his happiness bubble to the surface and break through his stoic expression. Wild’s eyebrows flickered upwards, and, after a quick moment of deliberation, returned the grin with three times the brilliance. 

“You know,” Twilight whispered, “I never did tell you when we first met, did I?”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed! Please don't be afraid to leave a comment with any questions, thoughts, or concerns you might have. I respond to each and every comment I get! 💚💚💚💚


End file.
